Rooster in fight, eye swollen shut- looks infected. Please help!-PICS-

Hi, yesterday morning while I was doing the chicken chores I noticed my best rooster KJ stumbling around in the coop and kind of whining. He would do this whining and then go into one of the ground level nesting boxes. I know he is hiding because I have seen other roosters do this after they have lost a fight and are being chased. The only thing is- KJ is and has always been the top rooster and has never lost a fight. I believe that none of the other younger roosters are "man" enough to challenge him this seriously. His comb, wattles, and head were very bloody. There was blood on his neck feathers, and his right eye was swollen shut. We brought him inside and Mom helped me clean him up a bit, he has kind of a bloody crust on the tip of his right eyelid. We cleaned it with a warm cloth and then applied eye drops. I put him out in a separate cage inside the coop most of the day yesterday with food and water, but at about 5:30 PM I let him out in the coop (closed the chicken door and left only 3 hens inside). He came out, walked around a bit, crowed a few times, talked to the hens, opened his injured eye a little, ate a little food and took a drink of water from the main coop waterer. He had about half an hour of out time while I supervised him. Then I put him back in the cage with food & water, took him out around 7:20 PM and applied another eye drop, and put him back into the cage for the night.

This morning I checked him and he had eaten some of his food but not all of it. I can't really tell if he has drank any of the water or not and this kind of worries me. I let him out into the coop and he walked around and ate a little, and he also crowed and tried scratching. We brought him inside again to treat his eye but it looks much worse. He didn't want to open it at all, and when I was able to gently open his eye it looked like there was a brown pus or something in it. I tried cleaning it but it didn't help much and then we put in 2 more eye drops.

This is what it looks like, poor boy


Sorry that this picture is so bad :\\


I think what must've happened is that one of our younger roosters got into a fight with one of our guinea cocks (the guinea cocks have been acting more aggressive lately, with breeding season and all), and KJ, as head rooster, stepped in trying to break it up. Unfortunately the guinea must've decided he wasn't done fighting and was able to land a good peck on KJ's eye. Unless the other roosters ganged up on him, then I don't know what else could've happened. He is my (and the whole families) favorite rooster. I need to know what else I can do to help his eye. I'm afraid we probably can't afford taking him to a vet, if we could even find one that would be able to do anything for him. I've heard that triple antibiotic neosporin ointment(cream) without pain reliever is safe to apply to his eye? We have some of this, should I try it? And how exactly do you apply it? Just smear it on with a Q-tip or something? What else could we use? Mom and I are really worried about his eye, and I think once it gets better he should be fine.

The exact same thing happened to my rooster. You can use polysporin directly in the eye. My boy has been spending nights in his cage for over 3 weeks now. The swelling and discoloration has gone away. The pus has cleared as well but I do not believe he will regain his vision. At first he would just hide when let out in the yard. He seems to be getting used to it now. I have not allowed him to be with other chickens because I am afraid they will peck his eye. He visits through the wire.

I hope your boy has a better recovery than mine.

Edited to say: Chicken pus is solid so it does not wash out easily. I just rinsed a couple of time a day. I will tell you it got a lot worse before it got better. It looked terrible. My roo has taken almost a month to recover to the point of opening his eye. He still keeps it closed sometimes but does not seem to be in pain.

I just want to add that what ever you use make sure it doesn't have pain relief in it that ends with caine. sure hope he feels better soon.

I am so sorry this happened to him Poor baby. I don't know what to tell you to do except keep giving him all the love and attention you already are.

Can you post the outcome of this incident with the rooster? How long did it take his eye(s) to heal, and was he able to see again/

Two of my hens got into a death battle, and one of them ended up with both eyes looking exactly like that, only they aren't even opening a slit. I think she might not even have eyeballs left.

I am wondering how long it will take before I know if she is permanently blind or not. Thanks!

What about using Vetericyn to flush the eye?

I would use Vetericyn, but the problem is that I can't even get the eyelids to open at all. It's like they're permanently sealed shut, and not by blood or goop-- I've already spent hours washing that crusted blood off, and there's nothing oozing out of the eye. And I rubbed polysporin alll over her head to maybe lubricate the eyelids open. She's been like this for 5 days.

this is a video of what she looks like:

I had a similar issue with a bully hen that pecked my EE pullet in the eyes..both of them. I saw it happen. Both of them swelled shut. I brought her in the garage in a cage. I put neosporin on both eyelids because they wouldn't open either. They started getting crusty due to drainage, so I wrapped her in a towel really snugly, brought her in the house and worked to get the gunk off. Then I used a regular eye wash in both eyes and put some Veterycin Eye Gel in them both. By the next morning, she was opening them more. I continued with the eye wash and Veterycin that morning and by later in the day both eyes were open and she could see. I got the Veterycin only because TSC was out of Terramycin eye ointment, which is an antibiotic. Veterycin is not an antibiotic. However, it did work for me and today she's doing well, back to laying, and not taking any bullying from the older hen. Here is a pic of what one of her eyes looked like after an overnight stay in the garage.

Welll, in case anyone's wondering, the crusty shell of bloody began flaking off the chicken's head yesterday (thanks to constant application of polysporin), and one eye has now opened (thanks to terramyin). She still can't see her food dish welll enough to eat on her own, but here are some photos of her.

This is one week to the day after I found her lying limp in a pool of blood on her side, eyes swollen shut, gasping for air like a beating victim. Until a yesterday, her whole head was a bloody black-and-red disaster.

Goodness, she really took a beating....
Glad she's doing better